The two stations, which broadcast a diet of rock – and in Absolute's case occasionally pop – were among the commercial radio winners in the latest official Rajar listening figures for the three months to the end of June, published on Thursday.

Absolute Radio saw its total UK audience grow to 1.76 million in the second quarter of this year, up 9.4% on the previous three months, while digital station Planet Rock was up 10.1% to 948,000.

The broadcaster also saw a big rise in its London audience, soaring 22.2% on the previous three months to 974,000. Breakfast host Christian O'Connell grew his audience in the capital by nearly 150,000 on the previous quarter, to 674,000.

But it was a different tune for some of Absolute's digital spinoff stations. While Absolute 80s, with 864,000 listeners, and Absolute Radio 90s, with an average weekly reach of 414,000, appear to have firmly established their appeal, none of Absolute Radio 60s, Absolute Radio 70s or Absolute Radio 00s managed more than 200,000 listeners.

Among the other national commercial stations, Global Radio's Classic FM was up marginally on the previous three months but down 4.4% on the year to 5.48 million. UTV Media's TalkSport had 2.92 million listeners, down 9.7% on the previous three months and 9.1% year on year.

Global Radio's national commercial networks, Heart and Capital, were both down on the previous quarter, Capital slipping 1% to 6.98 million, and Heart 1.4% to 7.38 million.

Heart was also down year on year, by 4%, but Capital was up, by 1.5% on the same period last year.

A number of national digital stations saw double-digit year-on-year drops, including Bauer Radio's The Hits, down 19.9% to 973,000, Global's Xfm, down 13.2% to 882,000, and Sunrise Radio National, down 23.7% to 447,000.

Overall the popularity of digital radio continued to grow, with 31.5% of all radio listening now via a digital platform, up from 29.2% in the previous quarter and 26.9% a year ago.

Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) grew to 20.1% of all listening, up from 17.2% a year ago. Internet listening was also up, to a 4.6% share from 3.2% a year ago.

AM and FM platforms now account for 61.1% of all radio listening, down from 65.2% in the second quarter of 2011.

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